In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions.
The Honourable Company of Master Mariners is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. While the other Livery Companies are entitled to the style Worshipful, the Master Mariners are styled Honourable, King George V having granted them that honour in 1928.
Seven commissioned ships of the British Royal Navy have been named Bermuda and given the prefix HMS, after the British Overseas Territory and former Imperial fortress of Bermuda. Two other vessels operated by the Royal Navy that were not commissioned warships were also named Bermuda.
HMS President is a retired Flower-class Q-ship that was launched in 1918. She was renamed HMS President in 1922 and moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship. In 1982 she was sold to private owners and, having changed hands twice, served as a venue for conferences and functions as well as the offices for a number of media companies. She has been moved to Chatham on the Medway in Kent since 2016, but is due to return to the capital. She had the suffix "(1918)" added to her name in order to distinguish her from HMS President, the Royal Naval Reserve base in St Katharine Docks. She is one of the last three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War. She is also the sole representative of the first type of purpose built anti-submarine vessels, and is the ancestor of World War II convoy escort sloops, which evolved into modern anti-submarine frigates.
The Grimsby class were a class of 13 sloops laid down between 1933 and 1940. Of these, eight were built in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy, four in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one for the Royal Indian Navy. Main armament was initially two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns for RN ships and three 4-inch (100 mm) for Australian ships, but armament varied considerably between ships, and was increased later.
HMS Aberdeen was a Grimsby-class sloop in the British Royal Navy. Built in Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, UK by Thornycroft, she was launched on 22 January 1936.
HMS Philomel, later HMNZS Philomel, was a Pearl-class cruiser. She was the fifth ship of that name and served with the Royal Navy. After her commissioning in 1890, she served on the Cape of Good Hope Station and later with the Mediterranean Fleet.
HMS Hastings was a Hastings-class sloop of the Royal Navy that saw action in World War II. She was built by HM Dockyard Devonport, laid down on 29 July 1929 and launched on 10 April 1930. She was completed on 26 November 1930 and commissioned that same day by the Honourable Alice Brand. She is the sixth ship to bear the name HMS Hastings. Her pennant number was L27, but changed to U27 in May 1940.
HMS Icarus was a Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns, and the third Royal Navy vessel to carry the name. She was launched in 1885 at Devonport and sold in 1904.
HMS Bideford was a Royal Navy Shoreham-class sloop. She was named after the town of Bideford in Devon and was launched on 1 April 1931.
HMS Pelican was an Osprey-class sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1870s. She was launched in 1877 and was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1901. She was scuttled in 1953.
HMS Grimsby was a sloop of the British Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class. Grimsby was built in the 1930s, entering service in 1934. Serving most of her pre-war service at Hong Kong, Grimsby was deployed on convoy escort duties along the East coast of the Britain and in the Mediterranean Sea during the Second World War, and was sunk by dive bombers off Tobruk on 25 May 1941.
HMS Lowestoft was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard in the 1930s, Lowestoft was launched in 1934 and commissioned later that year. She served on the China Station, based at Hong Kong until the outbreak of the Second World War. Lowestoft served as a convoy escort during the war, both in the North Atlantic and off the west coast of Africa.
Archibald Russell was a tall ship built in 1905 by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, for John Hardie & Son, Glasgow. She was a four-masted steel barque, equipped with two 120' long bilge keels, and rigged with royal sails over double top-gallant sails.
HMS Flamingo was a Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She saw service as a convoy escort during the Second World War, seeing extensive service in the Mediterranean and Far East in 1945.
At least three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Wellington:
HMS Londonderry was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard in the 1930s, Londonderry was launched in early 1935 and commissioned later that year. She served in the Red Sea and the South Atlantic until the outbreak of the Second World War. Londonderry served as a convoy escort during the war, which she survived. The ship was sold for scrap in 1948.
HMS Fleetwood was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard in the 1930s, Fleetwood was launched in March 1936 and commissioned in November that year. She served in the Red Sea until the outbreak of the Second World War. Fleetwood served as a convoy escort during the war, which she survived, and sank the German submarines U-528 and U-340. Post-war, the ship served as a radar training ship, remaining in use until 1959, when she was scrapped.
HMS Weston was a Shoreham-class sloop of the British Royal Navy. Weston was built at Devonport Dockyard in 1931–1933.
HMS Snipe was a modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton on 21 September 1944, launched on 20 December 1945 and commissioned on 9 September 1946, with the pennant number U20.
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
